The article talks about how atheism was a far cry from the path Dillahunty was “supposed” to follow:

Dillahunty’s vocation is shocking for his parents, who raised him in a devout Southern Baptist home and had once expected him to enter ministry.

Dillahunty’s pursuit for biblical truth took him on an unexpected journey. Instead of trying to win souls for God, the 37-year-old preaches the gospel of science and provable reality in the hope of keeping someone else from spending years on religion.

One excerpt was particularly disheartening:

Last year, after a relative discovered Dillahunty’s work on the Web and confronted him, Dillahunty realized that he would have to tell his parents. His father was stunned. He sent Dillahunty an apologetic letter saying he had failed him as a father and a spiritual leader. He said he regretted that his son would never be able to love anyone because atheism is a selfish belief.

His mother gave him books on Christianity and vowed to keep trying to return him to the fold.

He doesn’t expect to convince them that their beliefs are wrong. But it’s hard to shake his frustration with the labels they’ve given him: selfish, immoral, lost.

“You can build a moral code rationally from a few philosophical precepts,” Dillahunty said. His basic principle of ethics is “do the most good and the least harm possible.”